Recent entries in the journal of Lenok Enloquicedo:
Day 1: Return to the Keep. We finally completed our investigation into the status of the dam, and the flood threatening Turtle's Crossing. Kendrak is now officially Lord of Blackwall Keep, so it is now his responsibility to arrange the repair of the dam. To that end, I gave him some suggestions, and he sent to Magnamar for a proper engineer who could supervise the repairs that need to be made to ensure the dam will stand for the rest of his reign. Also, we need to come up with a power source for the dam now that the devils bound for that purpose have expired. Unfortunately, I am not yet capable of conjuring permanent replacements myself, and I'm not sure I'd be able to get Kendrak to approve that anyway (although he didn't have a suggestion, either).
I really wish that I'd had a chance to talk to the Pit Fiend we found; I'm sure he could have taught me much about the nature of the Outer Planes. If what Quintle says about his being a prominent member of the hierarchy of Hell is true, we could really have learned a lot from him. Father Cain is a good man, and his crusade against the evils affecting this world is truly a worthy cause, but he could really learn to be a little more flexible in his methods. We could have learned so much….
Also, we met a strange, overexcited fey (a pixie, I believe), who, once we'd calmed him down, told us his mistress was in great trouble. Eventually, we worked out that she'd been the lover of the previous commanded of the garrison, who'd disappeared when the ogres attacked. He persuaded us of the necessity of assisting his mistress, and we made the arrangements necessary for our trip through the swamp adjacent to the keep.
Day 2: [Entry written in Quintle's handwriting] We found the Fey Queen. Never have I seen so terrible a vision as that. I suppose I must have clawed out my own eyes, as I am currently blind, and the last thing I remember seeing was the Queen as she rose from her pool. Yap had not told us the Queen had been so defiled; never have I seen such evil [Indeed - that was good work!]. The Queen has, quite understandably, been driven mad by by the suffering she must have experienced, along with the disappearance of her lover. She was, however, pacified when we promised to retrieve whatever remained of the ranger captain. We must, however, wait until dawn to allow the good Father to restore our sight.
The fey that live in this forest have been corrupted by the transformation of their queen. Everyone knows that pixies have a sense of humor that can be a little twisted, but they don't usually try to persuade people to incinerate their companions. Janus claims it was Quintle, but I clearly told him not to do such things, and he follows his instructions completely. [Exactly!] The pixies also spent the evening tying various shoes together, which is more their usual thing, I suppose. [Wait till that obnoxious paladin sees the messages that I used the blood from his eyes to write on the trees around the campsite…]
We must get out of this swamp. The creatures we met on our way in were destructive and malicious in a way that forest dwellers are usually not, and the visions of death and destruction we encountered on our journey were disturbing and unnatural. Even Savannah did not feel comfortable. The seagoing ship we found in the middle of the swamp did not help, nor did the way it vanished after we left it.
Days 3-6: Traveling through a corrupted swamp in endless rain is not a pleasant activity. Fortunately, the boats Kendrak found us are solid, and we can make steady progress. We can see Hook Mountain in the distance, so we do not need our dubiously helpful pixie guide. Savannah did a good job ensuring the native life of the swamp left us alone, although it would have helped if she could deal with the mosquitoes as well. I really need to get some better camping equipment if we're going to keep doing this.
Day 7: We found the cave containing the ogres of Hook Mountain. It was easier to invade the cae than I'd expected; there were not many ogres, the ones there were did not last very long. Soon, we encountered the stone giant leader we'd heard of from the rangers. We managed to capture him alive, and he told us that he was but one part of a plan by the giant king to conquer Skull Island. He did not know much about this plan, but he did tell us that the ogres of the tribe had been enslaved to make weapons for the campaign, and that a group of hags was responsible for the unnatural weather conditions in the area. He also said that the hags had the body of the ranger captain; I do not want to know what they've done with it.
More seriously, the good father has apparently upset The One, as he is no longer able to channel His power in support of our cause. I'm not quite sure why our great Lord is so upset with him, as he has merely attempted to destroy that which should be destroyed, and has demonstrated an admirable single-mindedness in this cause. Cain has not hurt anyone who did not deserve it, and he has never wavered from the Path of Righteousness so clearly described by the Holy Order of Illumination. We must be careful here; for, as Quintle points out to me, hags are capable of all manner of deceptive sorcery, and it is entirely possible that they have succeeded in clouding our noble cleric's mind to such an extent that he can no longer feel his divine connection. We cannot allow this to keep us from our newly discovered goal of stopping the giants from taking over the island.